


Summer 1985

by Strangerfluff



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: El is now Jane but her friends mostly call her El, Fluff, Multi, Summer, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 06:50:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12835611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strangerfluff/pseuds/Strangerfluff
Summary: Takes place the summer after the events of season 2. El, Max, and the boys are still adjusting to life after the events in October but are doing well. Just a happy story of the kids playing and having fun, exploring relationships, learning, and just being kids.





	1. Chapter 1

Jane Hopper couldn’t take it anymore. Her own eyes glared back at her in the mirror, filled with rage. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she contemplated what she was about to do. What would Chief think? What would her friends say? Would they be angry? Confused? It didn’t matter. The torture had to end. A pair of scissors flew into her hand and she raised them defiantly before attacking the matted pile of hair on her head.  
Eight months had passed since Jane closed the gate to the upside down and saved the world, a task that seemed easy now compared to managing the wild tangle of hair sprouting from her head. It had gotten to that annoying chin length that was too short for ponytails and too long to be easy to manage. The only solution, thought Jane, was to chop it all off and start over. She attacked the bangs that hung in her face covering her eyes and watched as the hair floated down into the bathroom sink.  
“Much better,” she thought to herself, “now I won’t have to move my hair out of the way when I want to look at Mike’s face or eat eggos.” She smiled, thinking about her two favorite things in the world.  
The young teen girl positively strutted out of the bathroom, a glint of pride in her eyes and the scissors still clutched in her hand. “Breakfast time kiddo come eat,” called Chief Hopper from the kitchen.  
“Coming dad!” Jane answered. The word “dad” felt unfamiliar on her tongue, but it also made her feel a warm tingly sensation in her heart. Besides, she couldn’t keep calling her adoptive father by his actual name, and “papa” was an absolute no-go. Jane shuffled into the kitchen and plopped herself down on a chair, her fathers back to her while he prepared breakfast.  
“Would you like milk or o- JESUS WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR!” The young girl jumped at her dad raising his voice. Was hair really that big of a deal? She hadn’t had any at all for the past few years of her life!  
“What is wrong?” she cried, “I thought you would be glad I can see now.”  
“Kid, there are places you go to to get your hair cut. You can’t do it yourself!”  
“Oh. I was wondering why my hair did not look as nice as Mike or Dustin’s hair. I must have cut wrong. Maybe we should both go get our hair fixed Dad. Yours is started to not be on your head anymore.  
Hopper flushed and quickly covered his receding hairline with his hand  
“I’m not balding, just THINNING!” He sounded as if he was trying to convince himself as much as his daughter.  
“Ok dad, whatever you say. Let’s go to the hair place then?”  
The chief sighed and noted the horrible condition of his child’s hair.  
“I guess we have no choice then.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just realized these first two chapters are pretty dang short. Maybe I’ll make the next one longer? Also hang in there Jancy and.....Maxus? Lucax? fans I’ll get to them eventually! But first Mileven cause they’re my fave obviously :)

The haircut went relatively smoothly. Hopper tried to ignore the weird looks he kept getting from the hair dressers working there. Self given haircuts were common practice among 5 and 6 year olds, but this girl had to be 13 at the very least. Jane glanced into the mirror and viewed the finish product. It was a manageable “pixie cut” as the hairdresser had called it, but not too short to where her lovely curls could not be seen.  
“Alright kid I’ve got to get to work, where do you me to drop you off for the-“  
“Mike,” Jane interrupted him, “I want to see mike.”  
“Really? Shocker.” Replied her father. Hopefully Mrs. Wheeler would be there to keep an eye on them. 

They arrived at the Wheelers ten minutes later and Jane practically bounced out of the car. “See ya later, Hop!” she called back as she ran up the front porch steps and rang the doorbell. She could hardly contain her smile as she waited for her very best friend to come to the door. She heard a familiar voice yelling inside.  
“Mike will you get that I’m on the phone!” Followed by muted footsteps and finally the door swinging open to reveal a sleepy, freckled face.  
“El! You got a haircut!” exclaimed Mike, blushing a little because she just looked so dang cute.  
“Yes. Like?” El questioned him apprehensively.  
“Of course! I’d like any hair on you, even if you had cut it off yourself and made it look all crazy.” Mike joked, not knowing how spot on he had actually been.  
“Right.....play now?” asked El  
“Of course,” Mike stuttered and held the door open for his.... friend? He was reminded once again he had to stop delaying the whole “girlfriend boyfriend” conversation with her. They certainly acted like they were dating despite being only 13, and after the snowball he was certain about the way she felt about him. He was just scared of the word “girlfriend” and “relationship” because those were both things that could be taken away by another word, breakup. Whatever it was that they had now, he felt certain would last a long time. He couldn’t bear to lose her again.

“I’m sleepy” El declared after about an hour of her crushing Mike at battleship.  
“Oh and B5”  
“AHG,” Mike exclaimed, “you sunk my patrol boat!” El simply shrugged her shoulders and repeated her earlier sentiment.  
“Ok, so do you want to go home then?” El passionately shook her head no and suggested they watch a movie instead. Mike agreed happily and they ran up the steps to the living room.  
“Ghostbusters, Star Wars, E.T, or something else?” Mike asked.  
“Star Wars,” El responded. She was extremely fond of the Jedi and their ability to move things with their minds, for obvious reasons. Mike popped in the tape and sat next to El on the couch. Within milliseconds El was scrunched up against him, covering them both with a blanket despite it being June. Mike tried to contain his excitement when she laid her head comfortably on his shoulder, and he felt his cheeks positively burn.  
“El?” She turned to glance up at the dark haired boy.  
“You’re still ok with me calling you El, right? I can call you Jane if that’s what you want.”  
“Jane is the name mama gave me and daddy has returned to me,” she said after a pause, “El is the name you gave me, and I will always keep it.”  
She couldn’t have explained it any better, and Mike’s dopey smile revealed how thrilled he was at her answer.  
“You’ll always be my El,” Mike replied sweetly, and now it was her turn to blush.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A longer chapter as promised. I had a lot of fun writing this (and including an allusion to Stephen Kings’s It!) so I hope you enjoy :)

“Something was coming from out of the shadows with a menacing thump.... thump.... thump....” a evil grin spread across Mike’s face, a flashlight held under his chin for emphasis. All around him the group leaned in, hooked on his words.  
“Out of the darkness floated a single red balloon, but when the little girl reached out to grab it..... a terrible clown grabbed her instead and ate her up!”  
There was an audible sigh as the members all leaned back to there original sitting positions, not scared in the slightest bit.  
“Ate her up? Really mike? That sounds like the ending to a fairy tale,” protested a disappointed Lucas.  
“Yeah is that really all you got? Your bed head in the morning is scarier than that story!” laughed Dustin.  
“Come on guys it’s a great story! A killer clown who terrorizes a whole town and eats children? I bet if somebody wrote a book about that they’d make a killing! Er, no pun intended,” replied mike.  
“I thought it was wonderful Mike,” giggled a very content El. “Wait I mean it was horrible and spooky and scary! I’m so afraid of clowns now, whatever those are!”  
The whole group erupted in laughter. Mike couldn’t believe that he had forgotten to explain to El what a clown was before he started his story. Sometimes he forgot that despite how bright she seemed, there was very much about the world she had yet to learn.  
“Well fine then,” grumbled Mike, “anyone got a better scary story?”  
“I’ve got something better. It’s not a story but it’ll scare the socks off you babies,” Max smirked and glanced around the room at the apprehensive boys and girl.  
“Well then, what is it?” asked Lucas.  
“It’s called an Ouija board. It lets you talk to dead people,” she explained while pulling the game out of her sleepover bag.  
“Sounds like bullshit to me,” said a skeptical Dustin.  
“Really Dustin?” questioned Will. “We know an alternate dimension exists where a giant shadow monster and countless cat eating flower face guys live, and you’re skeptical about talking to spirits?”  
“Good point, good point,” replied Dustin nodding his head. “So how do we play then?”  
“We all touch this planchette here at the same time, then we ask a question and it will move over the letters to form an answer,” Max answered. The group moved closer in and placed their fingers on the heart shaped planchette.  
“Who wants to ask first?”  
“Oh I will, I have a good one,” chuckled Dustin. “Were Max and Lucas making out in that tree I caught them in earlier?” He could feel Max’s laser beam glare as the planchette slowly but surely slid to “yes.”  
“Oh you are so dead Henderson,” growled an angry Max, but her threat was drowned out by the fit of laughter that had erupted from the rest of the group excluding Lucas. He had suddenly become very interested in the pattern on the floorboards and was inspecting it carefully. El laughed with the others because she understood that Lucas and Max had been caught doing something the others found funny, but she was unsure what exactly “making out” was. Maybe she would look it up in her dictionary or ask Mike later.  
“Ok ok ok.....who’s next?” 

——

Many more questioned were asked that night before the group slowly quieted down and a few of the kids started yawning. Finally, Max ended the game by explaining the closing ritual.  
“It is essential that you always close a game with saying goodbye on the board, otherwise the spirit may stick around and haunt you!” she warned the group.  
“Yeah yeah yeah bye spirit thanks for snitching on Lucas an Max for us and other funny shit it’s been great,” grumbled a sleepy Dustin, already leaning back onto his sleeping bag.  
“No seriously guys! There have been some real ghost stories that come from misusing one of these things!” Max tried pulling Dustin back to the board but to no avail.  
“As a friend of mine once said,” started Will, “I ain’t afraid of no ghost.”  
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” chuckled Lucas as he too got up from the game. Mike on the other hand did look slightly concerned, and who could blame him? He had seen how much damage the shadow monster had done, who’s to say a spirit couldn’t cause real harm too? Just then, a soft scraping sound made them all jump around and face the board again. Had the wooden planchette just moved on it’s own? They all stared in stunned silence, waiting for something to happen. Then, the planchette started madly racing around the board in a figure eight pattern, getting faster and faster with each turn. A scream erupted from the group and Dustin even jumped into Lucas’s arms for protection. However after only a few seconds of mass panic Mike caught on and turned to face a grinning, and bleeding, El. The planchette halted to a stop just as Mrs wheeler opened the basement door.  
“What is going on down there?” she called down.  
“Nothing!!” they all chorused back. Soon everyone had made Mike’s discovery and turned to confront El, who was now doubled over in laughter with fresh blood dripping from her nose.  
“Scaredy cats!” she laughed, and the rest of the group couldn’t help but laugh too. 

——

That night, El curled up next to Mike in her sleeping bag as he wrapped her arms around her. He softly kissed her on the forehead and pulled her head close to his chest. El was flooded with an overwhelming sensation of comfort, trust, and safety. She never wanted to leave this moment or the safety of Mike’s embrace. So much of her life has revolved around fear and pain. Now, because of him, her life was full of comfort and love.  
“Mike,” she whispered to him softly, hoping he wasn’t yet asleep.  
“Mhm,” he replied sleepily.  
“You make me not afraid anymore,” whispered El with a blush.  
He just smiled and held her even tighter, not wanting to let go either.


End file.
